Speaking to Users
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A prompt is text that a voice-only application speaks to the user. Prompts ask users questions, greet users, provide information to users, and direct users to take specific action. QA controls must include at least one prompt. It can be an inline prompt that uses text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis, an inline prerecorded transcription, or a prompt function.
Use an inline prompt when the text of the prompt does not need to change at run time or needs only simple changes at run time. For example, a user might speak a size and topping of a pizza to a pizza ordering application. The size and topping might be stored in list elements on a Web page, and the application might use the values of these elements in an inline prompt to confirm the order.
Use prompt functions to dynamically generate prompts that require more than simple changes to the text of a prompt at run time. For example, use a prompt function to generate a prompt that uses the value of a specific Speech SemanticItem (SemanticItem) control when a QA control has been accessed three times.
Use the Voice Output General panel of the QA Property Builder to associate inline prompts and prompt functions with a QA control.
Associating Inline Prompts with QA Controls
To associate inline prompts with a QA control
Right-click a QA control on an .aspx page, and then click Property Builder to open the General panel of the QA Property Builder.
In the tree view pane, click General under the Output.
If a prompt database consisting of prerecorded transcriptions has already been added to the speech project, the QA control adds Prompt Engine Markup Language (PEML) markup that represents the prerecorded transcriptions to the page at run time. When the QA control activates a transcription or combination of transcriptions in this database, the prompt engine speaks the prerecorded transcriptions to the user.
Inline prompts can reference the values of Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) elements in addition to other controls on a page. The following SALT markup can be used by an application when confirming the size and topping of a pizza.
Did you say a
<salt:value TargetElement="SizeDropDown" TargetAttribute="value" />
<salt:value TargetElement="ToppingsDropDown" TargetAttribute="value" />
pizza?
If a prompt database has not been added to the speech project, or a database has been added but does not contain prerecorded transcriptions for a specific prompt, the prompt engine uses TTS synthesis to speak the prompt to the user when this prompt is activated by the QA control.
Associating Prompt Functions with QA Controls
To associate prompt functions with a QA control
Right-click a QA control on an .aspx page, and then click Property Builder to open the General panel of the QA Property Builder.
In the tree view pane, click General under the Output.
In the Prompt Function list, select the name of an existing prompt function or select New to create a new prompt function.
Note
A prompt function file (.pf) must already exist before a developer can add a new prompt function.
See Also
Other Resources
Design Dialog Flow
Create SALT Voice Response Application Projects